Blue Light Like That From Smartphones Linked To Some Cancers, Study Finds (cnn.com) 140
A new study, published Monday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that exposure to the kind of blue light emitted by outdoor LEDs, smartphones and tablets may increase your risk of breast or prostate cancer. The study compared previous exposure to artificial lights at night between approximately 2,000 breast or prostate cancer patients and approximately 2,000 controls living in Barcelona and Madrid. Slashdot reader al0ha writes: This study seems to say that exposure to LED light temperatures higher than 3,000 Kelvin suppresses melatonin because it contains increased blue light, and at least one city (Davis, California) has gone to the expense of removing higher temperature LED lights and replacing them with ones that have lower color temperatures. Specifically, the study found that "those exposed to high levels of outdoor blue light at night had around a 1.5-fold higher risk of developing breast cancer and a twofold higher risk of developing prostate cancer, compared with those who were less exposed," reports CNN. "Men exposed to high levels of indoor artificial light also had 2.8-fold higher risk of developing prostate cancer, according to the study."
Re: So Shoving Up Arses Not A Good Idea Then? (Score:2)
We will make this world a better place.
We know your plan: turn the whole world into Arkansas... where the women have more children than teeth and there's a Walmart on every corner.
(Ironically, even Arkansas doesn't seem to want this... but having never been to Arkansas, a lot of people on the coasts don't know any better.)
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Inconclusive (Score:5, Interesting)
"men who slept in “quite illuminated” bedrooms had a higher risk of prostate cancer (OR=2.79; 95% CI: 1.55, 5.04), whereas women had a slightly lower risk of breast cancer (OR=0.77; 95% CI: 0.39, 1.51)."
It's not uncommon for a single study to show a statistically significant, or even dramatic, effect on cancer rates. Check out this graph for good examples [vox-cdn.com]. You can't say anything about these kinds of studies except, "was within the margin of error."
Hah! You think that's terrible? It's worse! (Score:4, Interesting)
Lights? Melatonin? Sleep deprivation? Hah! I have a worse story. And a solution!
Combination Wrench, 5-7/8", 9mm, Chrome Vanadium Steel, Westward, 36A224 [newegg.com]
The California notice:
"WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including one or more listed chemicals which are known to the State of California to cause cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov"
Chrome causes cancer: Epidemiologic studies of chrome and cancer mortality: a series of meta-analyses. [nih.gov]
Vanadium causes cancer: Toxic Substances Portal - Vanadium [cdc.gov] Quote: "Everyone is exposed to low levels of vanadium in air, water, and food; however, most people are exposed mainly from food."
There is poison in dirt! My solution: We need to find a new planet.
Re: Hah! You think that's terrible? It's worse! (Score:3)
Not only oxygen. People drown in water! (Score:2)
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Which unsurprisingly is the focus of this study, indirectly.
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The fact that this apparently seems "crazy" to you is irrelevant.
It isn't JUST correlation. There is very good evidence of cause and effect.
"... lack of satisfactory explanations..." (Score:2)
Quote: "The global impact of breast cancer is large and growing. It seems clear that something about modern life is the culprit, yet there is thus far a lack of satisfactory explanations for most of the increases in risk as societies industrialize."
I've been experimenting with Melatonin: Schiff Melatonin Ultra 3 mg. 365 Tablets [walmart.com].
Article: Everything causes and prevents cancer (Score:2)
This is why you shouldn't believe that exciting new medical study. [vox.com] (Vox.com, Feb 27, 2017)
The study also talks about the pulse of an LED (Score:1)
Cancer or not - justgetflux.com (Score:5, Interesting)
It automatically dials down the blue component of your screen at night (with a gradual transition). At the very beginning, it takes a minute or so to get used to, and might look weird.
BUT! After using it for a couple of hours at night, I dare you to vidit a webpage with a white background, and turn it off for a second. Your eyes will hurt, and you will notice that looking at a monitor is like staring into a lightbulb at night. It's really painful.
Please, just get F.lux!
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Turn the brightness down, dumbass.
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Turn the brightness down, dumbass.
The entire point of F.lux is to automate that process, dumbass.
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In my limited experience, led lit monitors simply can not be dimmed as low at the cold cathode monitors could. I always kept those about 5 percent of brightness, now even set all the way down these led monitors are mostly still too bright for my liking.
This is just silly, leds can be dimmed much better and easier than what was basically just fluorescent tubes. C'mon monitor manufacturers step up and allow a wider (in this case lower) range of brightness. It can't be that hard, I mean almost all the old big
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Please, just get F.lux!
Because I have too much karma I'm going to say: Or just update to the latest version of Windows 10 which includes this feature natively :-)
Re: Cancer or not - justgetflux.com (Score:2)
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Let's look at first causes (Score:3)
If you're looking at a white screen background after 10 PM, yes it's going to be difficult to sleep and your biological clock is probably getting messed up in ways that may harm your health.
Certainly going to white on black, and dim, when you're reading to go to sleep helps. But not driving yourself so hard and having a life helps more.
Think about not spending your entire life doing what others expect of you.
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But ya, I suppose we should throw that out the window and just try having a life.
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You can supplement your melatonin. It's part of my travel regimen. But the reason you're looking at blue light when it can hurt you is that you're up too late.
Also, you can go only so far with your antioxidants, since people have an oxidizing metabolism. People thought melatonin was a miracle drug a decade ago. It definitely helps with sleep, but didn't work any miracles regarding the rest.
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Also, you can go only so far with your antioxidants, since people have an oxidizing metabolism. People thought melatonin was a miracle drug a decade ago. It definitely helps with sleep, but didn't work any miracles regarding the rest.
This isn't wrong, and I didn't argue it.
Missing a critical antioxidant the body has evolved to be there is however problematic.
You *can* supplement it, as you said. And in which cases, I suspect your increased risk for cancer drops dramatically. As does not exposing yourself to high-temp light in the evening if you stay up late.
LEDs are errily annoying (Score:1)
I hate white LEDs. They are now everywhere and they suck.
Tried a few LED computer monitors and had to pawn them off on others because I couldn't stand using them. It's impossible to turn down the backlight because they are using PWMs and no matter what you do it is impossible to correct out the blue tinge from the crappy output spectrum especially at lower brightness levels.
Finally found an oldschool but higher end CFL display on sale with LUTs and color calibrator. Had to eat into contrast a bit to get
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This assessment of the current state of LEDs is spot on. Never had these types of problems with crts, which you could dim to almost black if you wanted - real nice at night. The reason the christmas lights are this way is that companies, er I mean customers will mostly just buy the cheap junk. The christmas lights could be so much better but customers won't pay for it when that cheap set next to it that pulses and burns out your eyeballs is two thirds the cost (on the plus side when that set rusts out in se
You Cell phone causes .... prostate cancer? (Score:2)
"Men exposed to high levels of indoor artificial light also had 2.8-fold higher risk of developing prostate cancer, according to the study."
Uh... So why are so many men exposing their prostates to their cellphone lights at night?
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Is the study qualitative or quantitative. Is it double blind?
This was a retrospective study, based on surveys and questionnaires. So, no, there was no control group, and it was not double blind. This "study" doesn't even establish correlation, much less causation.
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One of the problems is that the cancer patients had a lot more family history of the relevant cancer, than did the controls. However, the blue light exposure was found to be a weak predictor independent of this on multivariate regression.
Blue Screen of Death (Score:5, Funny)
Gives new meaning to B.S.O.D...
ORLY? (Score:2)
light temperatures higher than 3,000 Kelvin
Like, say, daylight? [wikipedia.org] I guess a person must always sit in the dark to avoid cancer...
Re:ORLY? (Score:4, Insightful)
You didn't understand the story did you (Score:1)
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I've worked with LEDs, and what you're not considering is that daylight is a broad spectrum, and LEDs are multiple narrow bands. An LED that puts out light that averages the same temperature as daylight is actually very different. Maybe it is the same for some application, since the average is the same, but also maybe not.
Beware of waving your hands and presuming you have knowledge. It is a lot easier to wave your hands and presume you have ignorance, and instead of preventing you from understanding new thi
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You didn't add anything to what I said, so I question if you even understood it since you replied anyways.
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Helps to RTFA.
Worse sleep (Score:2)
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Simple hypothesis far more likely than god damned melanin (what idiot thought of that?)
That idiot is you, since that word exists neither in the study or summary.
Blue light causes you to get worse sleep. Plenty of studies on it, already confirmed. You get worse sleep, your body doesn't repair itself as well, including looking for errors during mitosis, your immune system doesn't hunt cancer as well, you're more likely to get cancer. Boom, easy.
While you're probably not wrong, that's not the critical path here.
Blue light inhibits melatonin, a very potent antioxidant.
Complete and utter bullshit (Score:1)
Correlative study.....Guess what people who spend a lot of time out at night do? Drink, Smoke, do drugs.....lose sleep......Wow.,.....hmmmm....I wonder if it could be any of those things rather than fucking blue light that we get all fucking day long.
Oh Horse Shit. (Score:3)
Like the subjects says. "Horse shit"
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It's only horseshit to close minded people.
There is a whole new section of science that treats injuries with laser light. https://paindoctor.com/red-lig... [paindoctor.com] . I had a foot injury. I was very skeptical, however I could barely walk. I was thinking I may have to get my foot cut off it hurt so bad. Think about that a moment. Just how much that would have to hurt for someone to think that's a good idea to cut their foot off. My Daughter took me in after hours, used it and oh man the difference. I had to come back
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There is a difference between treating someone with a laser and just plain blue light. A laser actually does transmit energy. That energy will be translated in to heat and there is scientific evidence that heat has some healing and therapeutic properties.
This is just plan blue light so again, Horse Shit.
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incel is about taking matters into your own hands.
Re:Bullshit (Score:4, Insightful)
Non ionizing radiation does not cause cancer.
They have the proposed mechanism: blue light causes your body to produce less melanin, which means less protection against natural sunlight. It is a hypothesis worth testing, anyway.
Researchers that published this bull shit should be imprisioned.
That's a little extreme.
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Re:Bullshit (Score:5, Informative)
They have the proposed mechanism: blue light causes your body to produce less melanin, which means less protection against natural sunlight. It is a hypothesis worth testing, anyway.
The story is about melatonin, the sleep-related hormone, not about melanin, the skin pigment.
Hence this is not about sunlight protection, but about weak sleep quality, which is already known to be statically linked to cancer
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Not exactly sleep. Melatonin also regulates reproductive-related hormones that would support an effect on prostate and breast tissues.
Re:Bullshit (Score:5, Funny)
The story is about melatonin, the sleep-related hormone, not about melanin, the skin pigment.
That makes more sense. I mean, the summary mentioned prostate and breast cancer and I was wondering... what the HECK are people doing with their phones where melanin level would affect prostate cancer?
Re: Bullshit (Score:2)
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... what the HECK are people doing with their phones where melanin level would affect prostate cancer?
You've never set your phone to vibrate, have you?
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Melatonin is not likely to have any impact one way or another on breast or prostate cancer. This is not a proposed mechanism. It's fantasy. Now, if they had shown a link between these lights and skin cancer, that actually might make sense. But as it stands it's overwhelmingly likely that the correlation is due to some other environmental factor.
Also, the idea that smart phones or tablets might have any contribution to this is utterly absurd. Bright street lights are barely within the realm of plausibil
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Disregard parent (Score:3, Insightful)
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Re: Bullshit (Score:2)
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Melatonin is a known highly effective anti-oxidant. It has long been supposed that melatonin deficiency was the cause for the link between poor sleep and cancer.
Melatonin is also known not to be produced when your eyes are exposed to blue light. Ergo, one may suppose that exposure to blue light in the evening when you may be sleeping can increase your chances of getting cancer over your lifetime. This study shows that the supposition is likely correct. This all makes sense, none of it i
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What the fuck are you doing that causes sunlight to reach your prostate? Are you the goatse guy?
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Prostates don't get sunlight....and breast cancer too....If they said they saw an increase in say....skin cancer....then maybe their imagination would be closer to reality.
You know what else produces less melanin? Lack of sleep!!!!!
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Hint: Correlative studies are bullshit and do not help anyone learn anything of actionable value.
Re:Bullshit (Score:5, Informative)
It's not that blue light that damages breast or prostate tissue directly. It's neurologically-mediated endocrine changes that have been well documented now for decades. It's only more recently that those endocrine changes have been linked to cancer.
The chain of causation is blue light -> retina -> optic nerve -> suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus -> pineal gland -> {disrupted hormones including melatonin and serotonin} -> {multiple and widespread physiological disturbances including disturbed sleep and chronic inflammation} -> {breast and prostate cell damage, precise mechanisms unknown}.
yes, Bullshit. (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, that is one factor.
But actually the chain of bullshit is MUCH longer here.
Basically, it is know that too much 'blue end' spectrum light can mess with your melatonin levels, as well as other sleep triggers (including psychological..)
So then you end up with less sleep, more stress, opprer general body health.
And then you see a rise in some cancer rates.
And its all the fault of Blue light! From Smartphones! no, really!
Its the blue light, not the stressing about peoples thoughts on your current instabookshite, not the being interrupted at 11pm with a work message, not
stressing about your mortgage, not worrying if you can survive in the 'gig' economy.
No, its because the smartphone screen is a little the wrong colour.
They obviously need more funding. I bet they could link it to heart disease, suicide rates, hair loss, divorce rates, and child abuse if they tried a little harder!
Perhaps just go with 'Thing everyone is doing right now linked to all bad things in their lives', that way they dont need to rewrite it every few years.
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Yeah lots of classic confounding factors to account for here.
Though it would be amusing to produce an "actuarial cost of application lack of dark theme support" estimate just to rattle that cage.
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But actually the chain of bullshit is MUCH longer here.
Only due to your posting, because you are incapable of reading or understanding words.
Let's start here:
Its the blue light, not the stressing about peoples thoughts on your current instabookshite
Two incorrect statements.
One, the fact you made up the statement that only blue light and nothing but blue light causes cancer, is not just wrong but proven wrong. Lots of things cause cancer, despite your claim otherwise.
Two, the researchers didn't say anything of the sort. You again made something up just to argue it.
The researchers explicitly stated that a lack of melatonin is what is causing cancer.
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Dude, why are you an AC? Get a login.
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Its the blue light, not the stressing about peoples thoughts on your current instabookshite, not the being interrupted at 11pm with a work message, not
stressing about your mortgage, not worrying if you can survive in the 'gig' economy.
This is a European study not an American study. Very few people stress about any of the above crap over here.
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It is likely to be bullshit, but for a different reason:
It's a correlation study. Correlation studies are inherently weak, for the reason that it's all too easy for there to be a confounding factor which produces the observed effect.
If I were to guess, if there is a real correlation, it stems from lack of sleep. Not getting enough sleep over an extended period of time contributes to a tremendous variety of health problems. And exposure to blue light seems to impact sleep patterns. So basically: get good
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So it's bullshit.
It's very weak and probably something else.
But you completely agree with it!
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Melatonin is an active cancer fighter in your body.
Blue light completely eliminates the production of melatonin during the evening hours.
A lifetime of having deficient melatonin should cause higher incidence of cancer.
Staying away is likely linked due to the fact that, at least in this day and age, most people staying up late are exposing themselves to some kind of intense blue light.
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Amazing how many people will discount sound science by someone saying - well it was funded by X. Can't believe them. Science is science. It doesn't matter who funded it. Find something wrong with what they're saying. Don't just dismiss it without a second thought.